Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Mid Service... What Am I Doing Here?

Hey hey, once again it's been a while since my last blog update... looks like I'm not the greatest at blogging. My idea of keeping a journal during Peace Corps has also failed (after the first week or so of being here). Furthermore, I seem to forget to bring my camera to a lot of important events/trips that have happened since I got here (however I asked for a new camera for x-mas with the rational that a newer camera that takes better pictures will encourage me to take more). Oops! I guess it'll be up to my gift of gab to fill people in on the exciting events that happened during my 27 months here. Hopefully, I don't get dementia or something so that 50 years from now even my grand kids/nursing home companions will be able to hear about my adventures in full detail.

So... to fill you in on whats been going on since my last post:

I only ended up fasting for 5 days during Ramadan... I know, epic failure, but it was hot and at least I tried. In Morocco, they start younger kids off fasting by doing only a couple of days at first and then increasing the amount each year. So I've accepted the fact that I did Ramadan like a 14 year old girl, maybe next year I'll up my number of days, or maybe I'll vacation to the South of France so I can gorge on brie and skip the "holiday" all together.

In September several exciting events took place.
1) I helped out with my practically-site-mate Maureen's journalism workshop. She wrote a grant and had the US Embassy and USAID contribute to a workshop to teach local kids about journalism. It was a huge success and a nice productive way to start of the new work year.
2) I worked at the Peace Corps health tent (blood pressure taking and educating) at the Imilchil Wedding Festival in the High Atlas Mountains. Historically the event was a large souk (market) where the local Berber tribes would bring their young to look for spouses. Today the tradition of the bride/groom hunt is somewhat outdated, and the event is mainly a tourist attraction. Which is weird because there were barely any tourists there. I did not find a husband at this event, but I wasn't looking for one, so it's not a huge loss. The area that the festival was in was stunning (unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I'll have to go back) and it was the first place I have been where most people I interacted with didn't speak Arabic (Darija) because they only spoke Berber because of how remote and up in the mountains it is. This was prob one of my favorite experiences thus far during my service.
3) To celebrate our one year in country anniversary and my dear friend Rachel's 26th birthday, a group of us went to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. OH MY GOD! What an amazing experience, obviously made better by the fact that I had been living in Africa for a year. The trip was filled with good beer, amazing Bavarian food, and cute European boys who, refreshingly, were interested in casual conversation, appose to asking if I was married and then immediately asking for my phone number (the Moroccan method) and who also didn't believe that I lived in Africa and was serving in the Peace Corps. We also took a trip to see Neuschwanstein castle, Salzburg, Austria and barely made our flight back (after driving 120 mph on the Autobhan!). However, I don't think any of us would have been too upset about staying in Germany for a few extra days if we had missed our flight.

Over the last month:
I've been dealing with post-Europe vacation blues and my, for lack of a better term, mid service "crisis". This has involved a general sense of homesickness, reflection on the first year of service (it went by so fast! but what did I really do? wait I only did that much work...? what??), thinking about the second year of service (oh my god another year of this? wait but now my language is better and I know my community and have a better idea of feasible work options... crunch time! better get moving!).
So, over the last month I've been trying to get my schedule for this year figured out and start sewing the seeds for any projects I want to try and accomplish during my last year. However, one of my best friends from high school is visiting me in about two weeks and I'm going to America (!!!) for Christmas/New Years, so my excitement for that has made it hard to focus on the present.

My schedule of activities for the fall/year looks something like this:
Tuesday: Girls Club at the Neddi Neswi (Woman's center) which involves self-confidence building/educational games, art lessons/activities, health lessons, discussions etc.
Wednesday: An exercise/yoga class at the other Neddi Neswi in my site in the morning, and activity night at the Dar Taliba (girls boarding house) which involves games, arts and crafts, English lessons, films etc.
Thursday: free day! (for now)
Friday: Helping out with blood pressure taking and baby weighing at the maternal clinic, English class at the Neddi, and book club at the Dar Taliba at night.
Saturday: English club at the local high school.
I'm also working on getting some small and one large project started, such as continuing the mural project at the Neddi, doing a breast cancer awareness project in site, and writing a grant for a English Resource Center/Library at the local high school.

So I've been really busy trying to get all of this stuff worked out, lesson planning, making several trips to ministries to get work permission slips, etc.

In my spare time I've been watching way too much TV on my computer (Band of Brothers, Boardwalk Empire, Lost etc.), trying to watch a long list of must see movies that I have on my external hard drive (Escape from New York, all of the Godfathers, Buch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Vertigo etc.) and tackling the big pile of books that I have borrowed from the Peace Corps Library (The Dharma Bums, Anna Karenina, Reading Lolita in Tehran, People's History of the United Sates, Tribe and Society in Rural Morocco etc.)

In preparation for my life after Peace Corps, I've been looking at grad schools and making a solid effort to start studying for the GREs.

Also, when I have enough money, I've been working on perfecting my cooking skills. I made bread and apple pie this week.

While I sit around and dream of things in America, like Chipotle, I've found that cooking and reading are my best coping skills for dealing with tough days in Morocco.